Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Homeland Security News The CJIS Group has an online database of bids and awards for Criminal Justice and Public Safety IT projects throughout the country.  Even the summary data looks interesting.  The detail is restricted to password only access. Utah received an award of $442,365 for EOC "corrective construction" among the $81 million awarded late last week by DHS.  Unfortunately, we didn't receive any of the interoperability grant money that was awarded. No one from Utah was among those receiving awards from the new DHS Scholars and Fellows program.  New applications for 2004 can go in after October 1, 2003. The massive systems integration bid for US Visit has been narrowed down to Accenture LLP, Computer Sciences Corp., and Lockheed Martin.  The Homeland Security Act passed Congress on the 26th.  Here is what was allocated to the states through ODP (text): For grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, and other activities, including grants to State and local governments for terrorism prevention activities, notwithstanding any other provision of law, $3,287,000,000, which shall be allocated as follows: (1) $1,700,000,000 for formula-based grants and $500,000,000 for law enforcement terrorism prevention grants pursuant to section 1014 of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 (42 U.S.C. 3714): Provided, That no funds shall be made available to any State prior to the submission of an updated State plan to the Office for Domestic Preparedness: Provided further, That the application for grants shall be made available to States within 30 days after enactment of this Act; that States shall submit applications within 30 days after the grant announcement; and that the Office for Domestic Preparedness shall act within 15 days after receipt of an application or receipt of an updated State plan, whichever is later: Provided further, That each State shall obligate not less than 80 percent of the total amount of the grant to local governments within 60 days after the grant award; and (2) $725,000,000 for discretionary grants for use in high-threat, high-density urban areas, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security: Provided, That no less than 80 percent of any grant to a State shall be made available by the State to local governments within 60 days after the receipt of the funds: Provided further, That section 1014(c)(3) of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 (42 U.S.C. 3714(c)(3)) shall not apply to these grants: Provided, That none of the funds appropriated under this heading shall be used for the construction or renovation of facilities: Provided further, That funds appropriated for law enforcement terrorism prevention grants under paragraph (1) and discretionary grants under paragraph (2) of this heading shall be available for operational costs, to include personnel overtime and overtime associated with Office for Domestic Preparedness certified training, as needed. 6:29:41 PM    comment []

CIO Interviews FederalNewsRadio.Com has a weekly column that features and interview with state CIOs.  A couple of weeks ago, it was George Newstrom with Virginia in advance of COVITS.  This week's interview is with Stuart McKee of the State of Washington.  Both of these states are doing some good things with IT. The interviewer asks Stuart about e-government and the Washington portal which is now available in several languages: Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Cambodian.  I had friends in Washington that spoke all of those languages when I was there, particularly Chinese and Cambodian.  Stuart mentions that the site has hundreds of services.  Only about 40 online services are available through the fly-out menu sytem on Access Washington.  Beyond that, I guess you have to "Ask George". also: Preliminary Financial Information for the State of Utah, Fiscal Year 2003 10:54:12 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.